The Web is a wonderful resource for gathering data on Antarctica, particularly if you want data that are up to date! For this portion of your investigation, you will conduct research to get an overview of Antarctica. Find out more about polar research and what life is like for Antarctic researchers.
To conduct your investigation, work as scientists do—predict what you may discover, make observations, and record what you see. Look for patterns. Afterwards, offer hypotheses to explain these patterns. Don't worry if your hypotheses are sketchy right now; any testable hypothesis is a valid starting point. From your investigation today, you will get a broad overview of Antarctica—how much of what you thought you knew about Antarctica is actually true? Refine the questions you have for further study.
Bring your journal to the computer and go to:
Check out "Antarctica Basics" and "U.S. Antarctic Participant Guide." At these pages of the Raytheon Polar Services site, you will find a lot of basic information about Antarctica and about the lives of people who conduct research and provide support there. Spend some time looking through the information on these pages and take notes in your Antarctic journal. Then go to:
http://www.nsf.gov/od/opp/antarct/imageset/
and scroll down to images #2 (Antarctica from space) and #3 (Antarctica/US relative size). These images will give you an idea of how vast Antarctica is, and of its place on the globe.
As you take notes in your journal, use the questions below to guide your overview.
- What are the physical conditions on Antarctica?
- Who works in Antarctica? Why? Who governs Antarctica? Who first settled Antarctica?
- How big is Antarctica? How much do we know about it? Why do scientists want to conduct research there?
- What new questions do you have about Antarctica?